The week-long trip in April was sponsored sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group working to strengthen relations between the United States and Israel, and was paid for through its foundation, the American Israel Education Foundation. No taxpayer money was used for the trip.

Diggs said he was surprised to find that everyday Israelis, while living in perpetual fear of the constant fighting that surrounds them, don't harbor any resentment toward those across its hotly contested border.

"You saw people in traditional Muslim attire, traditional Jewish attire and in modern clothing walking along the street, working side by side and coexisting," he said.

While visiting a kibbutz — one of the small settlements that the Israeli government has established along the border adjacent to the Gaza Strip to establish its presence there — Diggs said the group spoke to a woman who lived there with her 14-year-old son.

Diggs said the woman said her son told her one day that he hated the Palestinians, who reside in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank and want to establish an independent state separate of Israel.

She told her son there are people on the other side of the conflict that are just like him.

"They are not the ones shooting the rockets," Diggs said the woman told her son.

Diggs said for fear of suicide bombers on public transportation, which is how children there get to school, parents with more than one child don't put their children on the same bus.

There were no shots fired or bombs exploded while the America group visited the settlement, but Diggs said it is a weekly occurrence.

"The bomb shelters look like bus stops," he said. "They are common as fire hydrants here."

He said there are shelters within a 15 second run of most public areas and all homes have one. Fifteen seconds is how long the people have to take shelter from the time that a siren sounds, signaling that a rocket or mortar has been launched, until missile hits.

The tour group saw a stack of shelves filled with exploded shells.

"At some point, I guess they stopped collecting them," Diggs said. "It is a constant fear, but a fear that most have come to deal with."

They visited a fortified playground that Diggs compared to a Boys and Girls Club here. It had concrete walls so the children that played there were shielded from the attacks.

On the Gaza Strip, which encompasses about 140 square miles — about the size of York County — of Israel's southwestern border on the Mediterranean, the main threat is from the terrorist group Hamas.

To the north in Lebanon, there is Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group. And to the east is Syria, where a civil war often threatens Israel's border.

"The country is so small that they are so close to its enemies," Diggs said.

The group visited historical and religious sites including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, Jericho, the Dead Sea, and a military outpost on the Syrian border.

"You could feel the presence of God there," he said. "Every day something significant happened. It was a very emotional trip. It's really hard for me to describe."

Diggs said he would recommend the trip to anyone. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee hosts groups to help Americans better understand the conflict there.

"While we've got problems in this country, we don't know how good we've got it," he said. "I learned that almost everyone, the everyday people like you and me, want to live in peace. In spite of the violence and the possibility of terrorist attack, it appeared that the people wanted to peacefully coexist without regard to their religious and cultural differences."